On 1 and 2 July I was lucky enough to be one of the judges for the Online Courts Hackathon event co-hosted by the Society for Computers and Law, Legal Geek, the Judiciary of England and Wales and HM Courts & Tribunals Service.

The Hackathon brought together lawyers, court users, law students, and digital enthusiasts to develop innovative solutions to real-life challenges - all to be completed in one continuous 24 hour period. Over 400 people applied to fill the 220 places.

What are online courts?

The Online Courts Hackathon challenged teams to design various tools in 24 hours that would support online courts. So what are online courts? The first generation of online courts will involve judges deciding cases on the basis of evidence and argument submitted electronically. Online courts will provide greater access to justice in a more cost efficient way than the conventional court system.

Richard Susskind OBE, President of the Society of Computers and Law – and one of the pioneers behind the Hackathon idea - summed it up perfectly: “Online courts are likely to be the most significant development in our court system since the nineteenth century, enabling far greater and affordable access to justice. We were bowled over by the response to the Hackathon.”

The challenge

The Hackathon challenged teams to design tools to solve a range of issues such as making forms more accessible and easy to complete, developing negotiating and settlement tools to help resolve disputes before they escalate and solving the bundles problem (also known as a plastic-bag-full-of-paper problem).
Thirty teams pitched their ideas and reported on their progress on building their solution. After a short-listing phase, nine teams got four minutes in front of the full panel of judges and other attendees. My fellow judges were:

Mrs Justice May, High Court judge;

Mrs Justice Carr, High Court judge;

Amanda Finlay, Chair of Law for Life;

Chris James, Technology Lawyer, SCL Trustee; and

James Moore, Co-founder, F-Lex Legal.

Hackathon winners

The winning suggestion came from Wavelength/Law Society. It progressed from the diagnosis of a chest complaint in a doctor’s surgery through each stage of a possible claim against a landlord, using slick ‘pathfinder’ technology and voice interaction with COLIN (the Courts OnLINe help agent).

The runners-up, TeamPM from Pinsent Masons, presented ‘MobiMapper’, a case visualisation and argument mapper which narrows the issues of a case into a single document that a litigant in person might bring to court.

I felt it was a great opportunity for HMCTS to be involved in something so innovative. It brought home to me the importance of the work we’re doing to reform the justice system – the cliché “once in a life-time” really does apply to what we’re trying to achieve.

It was a pleasure to be involved in this year’s Hackathon. I’m sure it will be the first of many and expect all future events will be as successful. Don’t just take my word for it – have a look yourself by searching #OnlineCourts on Twitter.

HMCTS as a digital organisation

Events such as the Hackathon promote good practice and share clever ideas, but they will also highlight the number of challenges we face. For me, the biggest challenge will be creating a cultural shift across our organisation that moves us from non-digital to digital.

HMCTS has a loyal, committed and knowledgeable workforce, many of whom have worked in courts and tribunals for a number of years. Importantly, it is our workforce leading us into becoming a digital organisation as they are the same people who deal directly with our users every day. They know what will and won’t work for our customers.

Becoming a digital organisation is about putting our service delivery at the heart of everything we do to meet the expectations of today’s society. HMCTS is on an exciting digital journey and I’m proud to be part of it.

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2 comments

Comment byClaire Sandbrookposted onon 13 July 2017

Dear Mr Gallagher - I am pleased to read the transparency which is happening in relation to the digitization of HMCTS. For me, it is a shame that HMCTS after so many years have failed to embrace the need to deliver justice to successful parties through online enforcement initiatives. Instead of moving forward on the transfer of judgments from the county court to the High Court I understand that PAPER FORM FILLING is still being used to thwart efficient enforcement remedies. I look forward to the day when a successful party can go online, choose the enforcement of their choice, including selecting an HCEO, paying a fee and seeing their enforcement procedure kick off. It's not rocket science is it? All the clever ideas you mention above are tremendous but for many businesses and court users all they want is the best chance possible to enforce payment of what the court says they are owed.

I wish you continued success but just remember enforcement is as vital today as it was 20 years ago when Lord Irvine started to look at this issue.

Thank you for your comment. I’m pleased to confirm that work has recently been undertaken to validate the cost and benefits involved in reforming civil enforcement processes. Investment would enable delivery of a continuous digital service following non payment or recovery of a judgement, with the choices available to users more clearly explained. The matter is now being considered with a decision expected in the next two to three months.